6 months with a redfoot

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Smokio

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Hi everyone, im pretty new to keeping tortoises. About 6 months ago we bought a redfoot, about 3-4 years we were told. Brilliant little thing, really more like a little dog than a little reptile!

We bought him from a shop that had 2 of them. The other day I decided to get another and went back to the store and they still had the other one. I bought it home and although roughly similar there were some slight differences. In the pic, the one on the right is the new one we called Penny, he just was bathed as he was pretty dirty when we got him, and the other one is Pedro our current resident.

The recent arrival is slightly larger, and definately heavier. The shell is also a bit smoother. I was wondering if our older tortoise is on the path to pyramidding. Other than this, their behaviour is very similar, they are both very active, very curious and very friendly.

The one we have was fed a diet of endive 4-5 times a week, supplemented with bits of fruit and veg at random (he is crazy about mushrooms, pears, melon, cucumber & anything red!), and once or twice a month a little bit of meat, id say his diet is 75% endive (and dandelions now). He has a cuttlefish bone always available. He gets exercised a lot, he is always active in the morning/early afternoon, charges himself up under his heatlamp after breakfast and wanders about his house/our living room/garden, i put him back when he takes a nap under something.

He has a heatlamp and UV lamp, temperature is about 25-26 degrees in the hot end, a little under room temp at the other near his waterbowl. The substrate is sterilised bark, that I spray occasionally, there is always a little condensation in the tank. He bathes himself daily almost, and i give him a gentle scrub with a toothbrush if needed, about once a month so far.

Sorry for the long post, but I know it he gets pyramidded, then it is permanent. So I want to know if the difference is because of natural variation, care etc (the pet store keeps similar conditions I guess), or because something is wrong. I also make the assumption that the 2 are related, in all fairness they could be different ages or something too.
 

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Yvonne G

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Hi Smokio:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

Pyramiding usually occurs during the tortoise's first year of life. Just feed them right and keep them hydrated and you'll be fine. There are some good articles about the redfooted tortoises in Madkins007 library:

Tortoise Library

Happy reading to you!!!

What would you like us to call you?

...and may we know appx. where in the world you are?
 

Redstrike

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They're both beautiful! Adding more variety of greensnwould benefit them both. Have a look at tortoiselibrary.com when you get the chance and keep their humidity up!
 

Smokio

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Thanks for the responses! This puts my mind at rest, I will vary the diet some more though. The humidity I will see if I cant get it higher, should I be aiming for big droplets of condensation on the glass? My name is Mark, we live in Holland. Also the tortoise library is an excellent resource, it should be easier to find, as it never appeared in any of the lengthy Google sessions I did when researching these little creatures!
 
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